


The Dichotomy of a Doctor

by MK_Yujji



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Reaper!Bones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 03:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1115116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MK_Yujji/pseuds/MK_Yujji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Khan watches Doctor McCoy try to save Jim after the radiation poisoning and ponders the mystery that is Dr. Leonard Horatio McCoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dichotomy of a Doctor

**Author's Note:**

> Written for monkiainen during the Happy_Trekmas exchange on livejournal.
> 
> Rated teen for a single paragraph of imagined sexual contact by Khan. I also listed it as m/m for the same paragraph, though it's otherwise a gen fic. Although, I suppose Khan's fixation walks the fine edge of simple fascination and borderline sexual interest.

The terms that were offered to him weren’t the most ideal.  In fact, Khan was almost certain he’d rather be put to death than play the part of guinea pig to a Starfleet doctor in exchange for returning to cryostasis with the rest of his rescued crew instead.  

Almost certain.

If it had been any doctor other than McCoy making the offer, he’d have sneered at the audacity and spat in the face of the offender.   

There was something about that one, though.  Something that Khan couldn’t quite put his finger on.  The uniform he wore spoke of a man of healing but the eyes….  Those were the eyes of a man who had dealt death as often as he’d prevented it.  They were old eyes. Tired eyes.  Eyes that had seen the best and worst that humanity had to offer.

McCoy didn’t carry himself like a healer.  He carried himself like a warrior wearing sheep’s wool to hide his own nature.  

There’d been real strength in the hands that had examined him and despite the clinical detachment and professionalism, there’d been a warning there too.  An underlying threat that it would not be the guards outside that he’d have to deal with if he crossed that invisible line in the sand.

Khan hadn’t lived through some of the harshest and most violent years in Earth’s history without learning how to read the people around him.  That threat hadn’t been bravado or overconfidence.  It had been a simple statement of fact.  Genuine in its very simplicity.

It was a fascinating dichotomy.

He pursed his lips and watched the doctor as he worked tirelessly over his equipment.  “You shouldn’t neglect your health, Doctor.  The good Captain’s condition won’t change if you allow yourself a few hours of rest.”

McCoy continued to ignore him as he had since Khan had woken from the Vulcan's nerve pinch, strapped to a biobed with only minimal restraints and guards firmly stationed _outside_ of the room.  

He’d never met anyone so singularly capable of ignoring his very presence.  It had been offensive for the first few hours as he’d poked and prodded, trying to sound out both the doctor and his own situation.  Now it was simply a fascinating game to pass the time.

The only response he’d gotten at all was when he’d shifted towards the cryostasis tube that held Captain Kirk’s corpse.

“You do realize that no one has ever successfully re-animated a corpse, I trust… well, not one that was so thoroughly damaged, at any rate.  And not to any kind of stable condition.”  Khan leaned to the side so that he could better see the doctor’s face.  “My blood is potent, Doctor, but the odds of your success are astronomically bad.”

The only reaction was a moment of stillness before McCoy continued with his work, but it was enough.  “Ah… I see.  You _are_ aware of the odds.  Then I confess that I don’t understand the point in this little exercise of futility.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” McCoy said finally.  He settled a slide under a microscope and peered at the results before sighing and settling back.  His hands were clenched tightly on the edges of the lab table.

Khan observed the way the treated steel bent under his grip.  “Why?  Because I’m a _monster_?”  

He couldn’t help the sneer in his voice as he spat the word.  

Finally McCoy looked up at him, every bit of pain and weariness on display for Khan to see.  His hands released the table and he twisted around on his stool.  “No.  Because the only people you care about are the same as you.  You’ll never really know the fear of losing them.  Not in the conventional sense, not to things that you’ll never have to worry about yourself.”

Eyes narrowing, Khan tilted his head and studied the other man carefully.  “What are you, Doctor?  Because you are definitely _not_ human.”

McCoy stared at his own hands for long moment before sighing.  “I’m just someone trying to save what family I have left.  I’d think you’d understand _that_ , even if you can’t understand anything else.”

There was a long moment of silence between them as Khan considered that.

“Indeed.  Forgive me for distracting you.”  He shifted back and settled into the bed, hands curled into loose fists.  He’d rather have clasped them together, but the restraints prevented that until he was ready to break them.  He was far too bored to sleep, but perhaps a mental recitation of the charted territories would allow him some rest.

His withdrawl got him a narrow eyed look of confusion.    “You’ve been doing your best to bug the crap out of me since you woke up.  Now you’re just .. What?  Done for the day?”

“I _do_ understand family, Doctor.  And its importance.”  He met the suspicious gaze levelly.  “Think what you may of me, but I was not acting when I said that I would do anything for mine.  And as you’ve managed to save them from harm…  I am in your debt.”

Snorting, McCoy turned away.  “Yeah, because that worked out so well for Jim and Spock.”

“Circumstances,” Khan explained easily.  It was a simple matter to him.  “You cannot expect me to deny my nature.  I had an opportunity to take my family and a very nice ship far away from the Federation with no one the wiser besides the crew of your ship.  And your Captain had already betrayed me.  Any debt I owed was void.  It wasn’t a difficult decision to make.”

“Oh, like you weren’t going to betray him the second you had what you wanted, regardless.”

“I would not have.  I would simply have left your ship crippled in space and left your fates to chance.  Likely, the Klingons would have found you before the Federation, but it was still a chance.  My debt would have been paid.”

McCoy spun around again, eyes slightly wide.  “Say that again.”

“My debt would have been paid.”

There was a long moment of silence as the doctor stared at him, head tilted slightly as if he were listening to something other than the words.  Then he took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes.  “You’re actually telling the truth.”

Khan arched a brow.  He was, but it was unclear how the doctor could know that with such certainty.  “Of course.  I have no reason to lie.”

“Dammit, Jim,” McCoy’s gaze rested briefly on the cryostasis tube before twisting back around to his work station.  

Silence reigned between them as the doctor worked and Khan watched.  It wasn’t as fraught as it had been before, though.  In fact, it was almost comfortable.

“Are you telepathic?”

“No.”

“Are you certain?”  Lips twitching, Khan let his eyes travel down the doctor’s back to rest on the swell of his buttocks.  Then he used what he knew of the doctor’s skin tone and imagined it naked and open for him.

“It doesn’t take a telepath to read your mind,” McCoy said in a wry voice, glancing back at him.  “You’re staring at my ass and smirking while trying to get a rise out of me.  It’s so obvious that _Jim_ could figure out.”  He paused for a moment.  “Still inside the cryotube.”

“I suppose it was a bit obvious.”

“Yeah, a bit.”

“Android?  Section 13 was making great strides in the field, but I admit that I did not pay as close attention to their work as I could have.”

“I’m not an android, either.  And what happened to being quiet and letting me work?”

Khan shrugged and shifted slightly.  “I am unused to long periods of laying in a bed staring at the ceiling.  I find it quite boring.”

“Take a nap.”

“Also boring.  You’re a great deal more entertaining, even when you were simply ignoring me.”

Sighing, McCoy turned to look at him consideringly.  “How’s your molecular genetics or Bio-Engineering?”

“Neither has ever been my specialty, but I _was_ created to be a quick study.”

The tableau held for another long moment then the doctor pushed himself to his feet and moved to release Khan’s restraints.  “If you betray _me_ , I will kill you.  And then I’ll open up one of the other tubes and I’ll use _their_ blood instead.  Because you’re right.  Jim isn’t going to get any worse if it takes me a little longer to figure this out.”

It wasn’t as inventive as any of Admiral Marcus’s threats, but using his crew’s blood wasn’t the same as killing them and Khan could appreciate the difference.  More than that, he could see that it wasn’t a threat.  It was a promise.  A promise of violence mingled with a promise of compassion.

A dichotomy.

Khan smiled and rubbed his wrists for a moment before swinging his legs off the bed and standing up.  “My dear doctor, you are far too fascinating of a puzzle to betray.”

And it was a puzzle that Khan was looking forward to solving.  
~*~*~  
End

**Author's Note:**

> I may get around to expanding this universe. I have ideas, I just don't know if I have the willpower or inspiration to actually work them out.


End file.
